arranged the war against the lords and against the town.[356] The destruction and ruin of the Quiché race and their king was what they wished, but they did not succeed in accomplishing it.
In this way the sacrifice of men began before the gods, when the war of the shields broke out, which was the reason that they began the fortifications of the city of Izmachí.
There began and originated their power, because the empire of the King of the Quiché was really large. They were in every sense marvelous kings; there was no one who could dominate them, neither was there anyone who could humble them. And at the same time they were the builders of the grandeur of the kingdom which they had founded there in Izmachí.
There the fear of god waxed, they were inspired with awe, and the tribes large and small were filled with fear, for they saw the arrival of the captives, those who were sacrificed and killed because of the power and sovereignty of King Cotuhá, the King Iztayul, and the people of Nihaib and Ahau-Quiché.
There were only three branches of the [Quiché] family there in Izmachí, as the town was called, and there they also began the feasts and orgies for their daughters when [suitors] came to ask for them[357] in marriage.
There the so-called three great houses gathered, and there they drank their drinks, there they also ate their food, which was the price of their sisters, the price of their daughters, and their hearts were joyful when they did it, and they ate and drank[358] in the great houses.
"In this way we show our gratitude, and thus we open the road for our posterity and our descendants, this is the demonstration of our consent to their becoming husbands and wives," they said.
There they identified themselves,[359] and there they took their names; they distributed themselves in clans in the seven principal tribes and in cantons.[360]
"Let us unite, we of the Cavec, we of the Nihaib, and we of the Ahau-Quiché," said the three clans, and the three great houses. For a long time they were there in Izmachí, until they found and saw another town, and abandoned that of Izmachí.
[356] Chirih ahau, chirih civan-tinamit. "Against the Lords, against the city of the ravines." It was an ancient custom to name the Indian towns in this way, by the fact that they were built in places surrounded by ravines, in order to protect them against attacks by their enemies.
[357] Ta x-qui ziih uloc, literally, "when they carried their wood." This evidently refers to the native custom which obliged the suitor to carry a load of wood to his sweetheart's house when he went to ask her hand in marriage.
[358] X-e ocha, they drank from painted gourds, like those now made in Rabinal which are called och.
[359] Chila x-cob vi uloc, "there they distinguished themselves," that is, they were identified, one from another.
[360] Qui chinamit quib, vuc amag quib, qui ticpan quib. These are the names of the groups into which the Quiché were divided. Chinamit is the family or clan. Vuc-Amag, literally the seven principal tribes of which the Título de los Señores de Totonicapán frequently speaks. The word ticpán comes from the Náhuatl tecpán and means suburb, or district of a large city.
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